Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is this Thursday and I have no idea where 2011 has gone. It seems as if the days drag but once you stop and take a look around it's already Christmas. But I like fall and winter is my favorite season, so I suppose the year flying by is a good and bad thing. For this Thanksgiving I thought I would make a pumpkin pie.

This was my first pie and I think it came out pretty good!

Pumpkin Pie
1 can of pumpkin (15 oz.)
3/4 c brown sugar
1.25 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1/2 t salt
1/4 t ground cloves
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1.5 c half and half

Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare pie crust, roll out, and put in 9 inch pie plate. Crimp edge. Do not prick. Line with double thickness of foil and bake 15 minutes. Remove foil.

In large bowl, combine the pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and cloves. Add eggs and beat lightly until combined. Gradually add half and half and stir until just combined.

There are two ways to do this next step. My recipe says to place the partially baked piecrust on the oven rack and then pour the filling in. I just poured it in the shell while it was still on the counter.

 

The unbaked pie

If you do what I did, be really careful when you pick it up because the filling is very thin. I also had some filling left over, so into the oven it went without a pie crust. I just baked the rest of it in another lightly greased dish.

Either way, you need to cover the edges with aluminum foil to prevent over browning. Bake the pie for 20 minutes and then remove the foil. Bake 25-30 minutes more. A knife inserted in the center should come out clean.


Pie Crust
1.5 c flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 c shortening
1/4 c butter, cut up
1/4-1/2 c ice water

In medium bowl, stir together flour and salt. Cut in shortening and butter. Slowly add the water and make a dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll out into a circle. Put in pie plate.

Pig Stomach Stir Fry

Last week we were in the grocery store when J discovered an interesting section in the meat department. There were all kinds of fun stuff - tripe, pig stomach, pig ears, pig feet, and cow tongue. At first I was completely grossed out by the stomach. It was kind of wrinkled and limp and, well, I'll just let you have a look.

After we returned home sans pig parts, I really started considering it as an option. So we went back the next day and I bought the stomach and ears. I decided to tackle the stomach first.

I open the package. Apparently we bought two stomachs.

Anyway, there they sat in all their glory. I searched the Internet for proper ways to clean the stomachs. Our store didn't sell the raw stomachs, so we got the prepared stomachs, but they still needed washing. One of them, actually. I froze the smaller stomach for later use.

To Clean the Stomach:
Rub the stomach with kosher salt and let it sit for an hour. Make sure to rub the inside too. Mine slimed me. The stomach's juices were really flowing by the end of the hour.

Rinse it and turn it inside out. Rub more salt on it, rinse, and continue, making sure to get the inside of the stomach and the outside.

The inside was cool - it had some lining in there and stuff.

Once you've done that, boil in some water for a couple of minutes. It should get kind of hard and stiff. Repeat the rinsing process. I rubbed the stomach with some lime juice in an effort to get rid of the offensive smell. Also, if you see any white stuff that looks like fat, it is fat. Trim it off.

When you're boiling the stomach, take a whiff of it. It's an odor like none I've ever smelled before.

The lime juice sort of helped though.

Next, boil the stomach for 1-2 hours or until you can poke through it easily with a fork.

After boiling for 2 hours.

It is ready for your recipe.

I stir fried the stomach and served it over rice.

Recipe:
from here
1 pig’s stomach
3 cloves garlic (finely minced)
1 medium size ginger (skinned and finely sliced/chopped)
2 Tbsp dark sweet soy sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp fish Sauce
2 Tbsp black vinegar
4 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Cup of water or chicken stock

Slice the stomach into bite size pieces. Mix together the dark sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, and water. I used chicken stock.

Preheat the wok/pan. Add the sesame and ginger. Saute until ginger is crispy. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add the pig stomach, saute for about a minute. Add the liquid mixture and simmer until liquid is slightly reduced. It should make a nice sauce.

I bet if you gave this to someone and didn't tell them what it was, they'd happily try it out. The sauce was very good and the stomach was not bad. It was a bit chewy and did have a distinct taste.